Modifying gutter

House Repair Talk

Help Support House Repair Talk:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

ilyaz

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jun 19, 2009
Messages
306
Reaction score
23
The pix show an old alum gutter. It goes into an underground drain. The vertical section of the gutter is clogged and even if I clean it up somehow, it will eventually get clogged again with organic matter since it really has nowhere to go. So I have this idea of modifying it as shown in the 3rd photo. What I want to do is cut the off the bottom part (red horizontal line in the photo) and install a downspout extension + a couple of elbows to move the water away from the AC unit on the right + a long splashblock or an extension (shown by the 3 red arrows). Questions:
1. Do you see any problems with this idea?
2. Can I use plastic instead of alum for the new parts? How should I connect the bottom of the old alum gutter (after cutting it) with the top of the plastic extension?

Thx!

gutter002.jpg

gutter003.jpg

gutter001.jpg
 
Clean out the gutter and put some screens on it to keep the debris out.

I think this would be a temporary solution because crud will accumulate anyway albeit slower than now. Plus when it rains heavily and screens are covered with leaves and other stuff, doesn't water overflow and spill?
 
but where does the other pipe go.

You mean the bottom part of the old pipe? I guess I'll have to pull it out from the ground carefully and cover the hole with something
 
No I was trying to figure out what we can't quite see behind the bush at the bottom of the other downspout coming from the upper roof.
 
No I was trying to figure out what we can't quite see behind the bush at the bottom of the other downspout coming from the upper roof.

I don't think I need to do anything with it. This is a radon pipe not a water pipe.
 
Now that makes sence. I don't see anything wrong with your plan and getting water away from the house is always a good thing.
There new things on the market like doing away with the little plastic thing in the gutter at the downspout, bigger pipes and even clean out on the pipe.
http://www.gutterdoc.ca/gutter-downspouts/
 
Before you go and cut your downspout, why not do a little recon into the underground portion. Unless that has been done incorrectly, it is a better way to get the water away from the house. Could be a local clog there that's causing a backup into your downspout.

What kind of debris is getting caught anyway? Leaves? grit? twigs? It's best to keep that stuff out of the gutters to begin with.
 
So here's the result of my work. The 1st photo shows the modified gutter. Mostly finished. I still need to replace the pile of bricks with a better support for the extended piece + I need to caulk one connection where the black duct tape is now: the screw bent the inside piece of alum instead of going through it so now I do not a very tight connection there.

The 2nd photo shows the plastic elbow at the ground level where the bottom part of the old gutter went (the one I cut off and removed). As expected, not only is it completely clogged but it's been clogged for so long that all that organic crud have turned into soil. Frankly, I don't understand how this could have been any different: even if I had some sort of gutter guard that filtered out big stuff, there would still not filter out some stuff that would have nowhere to go.

And now it does! :)



This is the first time I opened up this gutter since we bought the house almost 15 yrs ago and so

IMG_9281.jpg

IMG_9282.jpg
 
How do you know that the corrugated underground pipe was supposed to carry the rainwater to somewhere else?

Women will not go for the arrangement in the photo. :(
 
How do you know that the corrugated underground pipe was supposed to carry the rainwater to somewhere else?

Sorry, I don't understand the question. Why do I need to worry about what the old system was supposed to do? It was not working at all lately so what I have now takes water away from the house down the sloped backyard.

Am I missing something?
 
I think it looks good much like mine. I ran mine straight down and then switched to 4" PVC elbow and long length. When I mow takes two seconds to move and if we have outdoor party I just take it off so no one trips. Underground is great but they always plug up.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Repair
 
I know it's done, but for the sake of the discussion; since you've been in the house for a while, did you know where the underground pipe led to? Had you tried blasting the pipe with a garden hose to see what came out at the end. If it was a drywell, it could have just been done but if it had an outlet at the bottom of the hill/slope/property, I might have tried to save it. just my :2cents:
 

Latest posts

Back
Top